Funds to Improve Track & Courts, Create New Entrance at Victory Field Approved

Several years after the planning began for improvements to the track oval and tennis and basketball courts area at Victory Field, funding for the project was approved by the City Council Tuesday night.

The final recommendation for the project was approved in 2018, but the project was pushed back on the City’s list of capital projects until this year. On June 24, Councilors unanimously approved borrowing $8.9 million to pay for construction and reconstruction of parts of the municipal outdoor recreational and athletic facilities located at Victory Field.

The project is the second phase of improvements to the Victory Field athletic facilities, coming after the improvements to the stadium area (where sports including football, soccer and field hockey play) and the baseball diamond.

Some features of Phase II of the project include:

Track Area

• A six lane track oval with eight sprint lanes
• Expanded sand pits for long jump and triple jump
• A rubberized “D” area for high jump and pole vault the on west side of the site
• Bleachers on the north and south sides of the track
• Storage

Courts Area

• Five tennis courts that will also have temporary striping for pickleball
• One basketball court
• Two sets of bleachers
• Storage

Driveway and Parking

• A new entryway with an arch and decorative fence and the World War II cannon located near the entrance
• A driveway which will be shared pedestrians and vehicles
• Parking spaces for 23 vehicles, and a small car turnaround area near Marion Road
• Buses to enter from Orchard Street and leave through the gate on Marion Road

At a meeting in November 2024, some residents and coaches called for making the field inside the oval artificial turf to allow for more use by high school and youth sports teams. Another area of concern raised was that the project does not solve the lack of a changing area for female athletes. Neither of these items were not included in the final approved plan.

End of a Long Process

Council Vice President Vincent Piccirilli said the discussions began more than a decade ago and the most intense public processes he has been through. The results was a report with 50 recommendations.

“I am really glad that we are here tonight to vote on this, to move it forward, to get it done, because this has been something we’ve been talking about doing since 2012 there really is only one major change,” he said.

The change was the elimination of the underground stormwater system, Piccirilli said.

“When we did the test pits we discovered a lot of weird stuff under the ground,” he said. “So we couldn’t put the underwater stormwater system where we thought we could, but that really doesn’t affect the public, because we’re going to put it somewhere else.”

Another change was installing a ball safety netting system. The original netting request was for netting around the entire field, Piccirilli said, but it was decided to put in 15 foot high poles with netting, and have them behind the soccer goals at either end of the field.

City Council President Mark Sideris said that item was requested by Watertown School officials.

“They are removable, and so basically, we can put them up in the spring, take them down in the summer, when there’s not a lot of use, and then put it back up in the fall, and then take them down for the winter,” Sideris said.

Recreation Director Ernie Thebado said the Department of Public Works will be in charge of putting up and taking down the nets and will work with the Watertown Athletic Director to coordinate when they are needed.

Argus Construction was the lowest qualified bidder at $7.289 million. The total cost also includes a construction contingency fund of 10 percent of the total cost ($730,000), plus $413,000 for construction administration and services, $150,000 for utilities, and $350,000 for storage buildings, according to the memo from project designers CDM Smith. The next lowest bid was $7.302 million from Heimlich Landscape.

CDM Smith is currently working with Argus on the Peabody Playground project in Cambridge.

Find out more about Victory Field Phase II by clicking here. See the memo about the bids for the project by clicking here.

Plans for Victory Field Track Renovation Presented, Some Call for Artificial Turf Field